


Out of Sync

by HeavenlyDisaster



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Airheaded Reggie, But Boyfriend, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Injury, Not boyfriend, ghost boyfriend, pain meds, perfect harmony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28719270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavenlyDisaster/pseuds/HeavenlyDisaster
Summary: Luke is left spiraling when Julie gets hurt at school.  Startling confessions are made and secrets are uncovered.Inspired by mouse-fantoms on Tumblr.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 9
Kudos: 196





	Out of Sync

Luke slouched in his chair and lightly plucked at the strings of his guitar. Reggie was in the loft trying to open a cardboard box that had been up there since they’d arrived twenty-five years in the future. Alex was trying to balance his drumsticks upright on his head. Luke plucked a final note and let it hang in the empty air for a few seconds before jumping to his feet and dumping his guitar in the seat in his place.

“What time is it?” He demanded.

Alex frowned shrugged. “Two? Three?”

Luke huffed. “So, where is Julie?”

Reggie popped his head over the banister. “Relax, dude, she’s probably doing some after school thing. She’ll be here.”

“School,” he scoffed. He was impatient. They’d booked another gig barely a day after playing the Orpheum. This time, as the headliners. Sure, it was three weeks away, but Luke wanted the show to be flawless. He was itching to make up for the Orpheum. To save face. And not just his. He wanted Julie to know he wasn’t going to let her down or leave her in the lurch again. 

“Oh, maybe she’s doing something with Flynn. Or they’re having private ‘girl talks’ and they don’t want us to hear.” Reggie swung down from the loft and dropped beside Luke. He grinned at Luke. “Talking about boys and butterflies and tea parties.”

Luke rolled his eyes at his friend. “Whatever. We can just start without her.”

Reggie gave him a mock salute and poofed his guitar into his hands with a cocky smirk to Alex.

“You realize girls don’t have tea parties after the age of, like, five, right?” Alex demanded.

“Hey, Katie was eight and we still had tea every Friday afternoon,” Reggie argued.

Alex and Luke shared an exasperated look and decided to leave it. Luke started them in on a new song he was working on and waited for Alex and Reggie to fit in their parts. He sang Julie’s part in her absence all the while missing her. Stupidly missing her. He’d seen her just that morning. The truth of it was painful to admit. He missed her whenever she wasn’t looking at him.

They took a break some time later. That was when Luke noticed the sun had gone down. He looked at his band mates to see if they noticed the same thing he had. The sun had long since set and Julie had never made an appearance. If Luke’s heart had still beat it would have dropped into his gut. He nodded towards the house. They weren’t supposed to leave the studio strictly speaking. Julie always made allowances.

The house was dark. The silence was painful. Reggie wandered into Ray’s office as Luke and Alex made their way to Julie’s room. Not only was her room empty, her school bag wasn’t there. Reggie poofed beside them.

“Ray isn’t here either.”

Luke was starting to panic. “So, they went out for a family dinner,” he rationalized.

Reggie shook his head. “Ray would have said something. I would know.”

Alex reached over and smacked the back of Reggie’s head behind Luke’s back. Reggie let out a cry of offense, but Alex nodded at Luke before he could do much more. Reggie took one look at Luke’s petrified face and snapped his mouth shut.

The sound of the door unlocking and opening downstairs was a sigh a relief. The boys barreled out of Julie’s room and down the stairs. Carlos and his aunt were just shutting the door behind them. 

“Hurry and grab your things. I don’t want to stay here too long.”

“Relax, Tia. I told you the ghost sitch was taken care of. I can just stay here until Dad and Julie get home anyways. I don’t need a babysitter.”

His aunt frowned sternly down at him. “What about a ride to school in the morning, hm? Do you think you need one of those?”

“They’ll be back by then. Won’t they?” 

His aunt sighed and pressed her lips together. “Either way, your dad won’t be up for driving so early in the morning. Just get your things and be quick about it.” His aunt shivered as she looked around the house fearfully.

The boys watched Carlos run up the stairs and turn into his room. He came back down a few seconds later with an overnight bag. He held up a finger to his aunt and started towards the back door.

“Just a minute, Tia. I forgot something in the studio!” He turned and bolted across the yard and into the studio. The boys shared a curious look before poofing back to their instruments. Carlos stepped into the room hesitantly.

“Boy band?” He called, cautiously. “Are you in here?”

“Uh, hello?” Reggie replied.

“Reggie!” Alex chided.

“Boy band,” Luke muttered.

“Oh. Right.”

“If you’re in here, uh, turn on the light,” Carlos demanded.

Reggie popped over to the light switch and flicked the light on with a grin.

“Whoa.” Carlos breathed. “Okay. Here’s the deal, my sister broke her foot at school today and they had to do a surgery that my dad promises was minor. She’s going to be in the hospital overnight, but she’ll be back in the morning.” He tucked his hands into his belt loops. “So, I guess… that was all I wanted to say.”

Luke didn’t care anymore if he had a heart or not. Whatever had been in his chest had moved somewhere very far away. He was frozen in place. Carlos bowed awkwardly and backed out of the studio. 

“Oh!” The kid called out. “Turn the lights out if you understood.”

Reggie chuckled and flicked the lights off again. 

A slow grin spread across the kid’s cherubic face. “Wicked.”

“Yeah, it is.” Reggie agreed. He turned to his band mates, slapping Luke on the back. “Well, that’s good. Nobody died. Julie’s fine.”

Alex nodded. “More importantly, she didn’t stand us up.”

Reggie wrinkled his nose. “Well, technically speaking, she did still stand us up. It just wasn’t her fault.”

“Yeah, we should do something for her. Get her flowers or something.”

Luke couldn’t listen to them anymore. Julie was in the hospital. He had poofed before it was even a solid thought in his head. He stared up at the hospital with a special dread in his stomach. She was in the same hospital he had died in. Because their lives hadn’t overlapped in enough ways already. He was split between wanting to poof back to the studio and wait for her to come back home and the overwhelmingly pressing need to see her right then.

The struggle didn’t last long before he was striding into the hospital lobby. He found a nurses’ station and waited until a computer was clear before typing in Julie’s name and finding her room number. He’d just made it to the fourth floor when it occurred to him that Julie was probably sleeping. And her dad was in the room with her. He suddenly felt very foolish.

The door swung open and Ray passed through him into the hall leaving the door ajar. Luke could see Julie’s fluffy hair pillowed around her head. Her face was turned away towards the window looking out at the Los Angeles skyline so he couldn’t tell if she was sleeping or not. Once again, he moved without thinking. He stepped into the room and shut the door slowly behind him.

Julie turned her head at the sound. She was paler than usual. Her face split into an easy grin when she spied him that made Luke feel like he had never died at all. He gave her an uneasy smile that faltered on his face as he looked at the way her foot was wrapped and suspended on a miniature hammock at the end of the bed. 

“I love these dreams,” she sighed.

Luke’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “Dreams?”

She nodded against her pillows and shut her eyes. “I don’t feel like dancing, though. We should do something else.”

“Have we danced before?” He asked, moving closer to sit in Ray’s vacated seat.

Julie gave him a look that said he should clearly already know that. She smoothed the blankets over her lap in lieu of answering before looking at him again. A small smile played on her lips for a moment before her brows drew together in confusion. “Why’s your hair like that?”

Luke reached up instinctively to touch his mop. “Wha- uh what do you mean? It’s always like this.”

Julie frowned deeply. “It’s usually brushed back.”

“Brushed back?”

She reached out her hand towards him. He leaned forward automatically. Her fingers pushed his hair back softly. He shut his eyes, relishing in the feel of her warm skin on his. He never felt temperature anymore. That was one of the benefits of being a ghost. But Julie? He could feel her touch in a way he never had before not even when he’d been alive. She stroked her fingers through his hair for a few minutes before sitting back and pursing her lips at him.

“I can’t make it look right. Why can’t I make it look right?”

Luke reached up and tussled his hair back into place. “Sorry.” He looked down at her injured foot and swallowed, remembering why it was he was there in the first place. “Are you alright?”

Julie followed his gaze and stared at her foot. “He actually broke my foot,” she murmured.

Luke’s head snapped back to her. “Who?”

Julie leaned back and closed her eyes again. She rubbed the heel of her hand against her temple. “I know it was an accident.” She looked at Luke. “Does it make me a bad person if I say I’m still angry at him?”

Luke fought down a chuckle at the thought of Julie ever being considered anything close to bad. “You could never be a bad person.” He licked his lip. “How did it happen?”

Julie sighed. “We were dancing. I thought he was really improving. He could be a professional if he keeps on the way he is. Even our teacher is impressed. She’s been cooing over him for the past week. It’s a little intimidating. “Nick, the way you move is so fluid. You might not be a natural, but you are an excellent student.” And “Class, I would like everyone to follow Nick’s example.” Then today he did a jump and went too far before I could move and landed on my foot.”

Luke’s mood soured. Of course it had been Nick. Something violent ticked in Luke’s chest. He wanted to hit somebody. Really hit them. And not just anybody. He wanted to hit Nick. Hurt him as much as he’d hurt Julie.

Julie’s hand covered his snapping him back to reality. Slowly, he turned his hand over. As he did, Julie laced her fingers through his. She smiled at him dreamily and Luke was afraid he might really lean over and kiss her. The door opened as Ray returned with a cup of coffee. He looked at Julie in surprise.

“Honey, the doctors said you should be sleeping,” Ray chided.

Luke slipped his hand from Julie’s and stood at the same time Ray sat down. Julie stared at her father for a moment before looking up at Luke. “But what about Luke?”

“Luke?” Ray reached over and picked up her phone. He turned it over with a frown at the dark screen. “Sweetheart, you can talk to your hologram guys tomorrow. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

Julie continued staring up at Luke. “Oh. This is one of the bad ones,” she mumbled.

Luke frowned. 

“Bad ones?” Ray asked. “Do you need me to get one of the doctors? The nurse said those pain meds they gave you should knock you right out.”

Pain meds. It was embarrassing how long it had taken him to realize Julie wasn’t exactly ‘with it.’ Of course she’d been put on pain medication and of course it was making her loopy. She didn’t mean any of the things she was saying.

“Do you need me to sing you to sleep?” Ray asked, lightly. The two shared a grin.

“I’m sixteen, Dad. I can sing myself to sleep.”

Ray chuckled. “I don’t think that’s how that works, honey.”

Julie smiled and nestled herself back down into her pillows. She began to hum a melody that didn’t belong to any of the songs they had written together. Luke wondered briefly if it was a song she’d written with her mom until she began singing the lyrics. Why hadn’t she shared this song with him before? It was beautiful.

Her eyes opened again and landed on his. She grinned sleepily as she continued to sing.

WE SAY WE’RE FRIENDS

YOU’RE MORE TO ME

Luke’s throat tightened. There were clearly two parts to the song. It was a duet, but he didn’t know his part. He opened and closed his mouth trying to think of something to say or do. Julie shut her eyes again and resumed humming. After another minute, she fell silent. Her breathing slowed and her body went limp as sleep overcame her. Ray sighed and leaned against her bed rail.

“Ah, kiddo, you know this is going to be one of my good memories once you run off and get famous. I know I don’t have many moments with just you and me left. Not like this, anyway.”

Luke turned his attention to Ray. He picked up Julie’s hand, the one Luke had been holding just a few minutes earlier, and kissed it before tucking it beneath the blanket.

Luke reached down and brushed a strand of Julie’s hair away. He leaned down, but just before his lips could touch her cheek, he poofed away back to the garage. 

“Luke!” Reggie cried. “Where did you go?” 

“Yeah, man! We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Luke picked up his guitar and sat back in his chair staring across the room without really seeing anything. “I, uh, I went and saw Julie.”

“In the hospital?” Alex and Reggie shuddered.

“How is she?” 

Luke nodded at the floor. “Good. She’ll be home tomorrow.”

“Then, why do you look like you just saw a ghost?” Reggie challenged. “And not the us ghosts. Like… Caleb.”

Alex rolled his eyes at Reggie. “Reggie’s right, dude. You look like hell.”

“I’m fine. Honest. Just… thinking.” He strummed a few chords on his guitar until he found the right one. He wished he knew the rest of the lyrics. 

“Oh, about Julie?” Reggie grinned, pulling out Julie’s laptop.

Alex sat down beside Luke and rested a heavy hand on his shoulder. “C’mon, man. What’s eating you?”

Luke try in vain to keep the blush from rising to his cheeks. He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “I, uh, I think Julie might have…. Well, I’m not positive or anything. And I’m not trying to sound conceited or whatever-”

“Dude, just spit it out.”

“I think Julie wrote a song about me.”

Alex and Reggie shared a look. Alex pressed his lips together and shook his head at Reggie who had opened his mouth to say something. Alex sniffed and nodded.

“Just you or about all of us?”

Luke scratched behind his ear. “Just me,” he mumbled.

“And this song, it’s a catchy little hit about how much she likes being friends? Or… how dreamy your eyes look when you sing to her?”

Luke flushed deeper and covered his eyes with his hand. “I think the second.”

“Shouldn’t you be jumping for joy?” Reggie demanded. “A girl writes me a song like that, I’m flying high for a week.”

Luke glared at Reggie. “You’re forgetting one major thing, man.”

Reggie looked between Luke and Alex. “What?”

Luke blinked. It was impressive how often and completely Reggie managed to forget that they were dead. Some days he was jealous of that ability. Not today.

“I’m dead and she’s not. How would that even work?”

Reggie didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, but she can touch us now. Sure, it only works with her, but that’s what you want.”

“And isn’t the most important part of a relationship that you enjoy each other’s company beyond the physical?” Alex added.

Luke leaned back in his chair and began strumming the chords for Julie’s song on his guitar. He supposed they were right in their own merits, but he couldn’t help feeling like Julie deserved more than some dead guy who happened to be her band mate. And at the same time, the thought of Julie smiling like that at anyone else made his nonexistent blood boil.

Julie stayed in her room for a week while her foot healed. The boys split up their time so that someone was always with her to keep her occupied while she was immobilized. Ray would come to bring her food and make sure she was taking her meds at the proper times. Carlos came before and after school to check in on her and ask her about the band.

Luke made sure he was never alone with her. He had no idea what he would say if she asked him about what happened in the hospital. He was trying not to find out though he knew it was inevitable.

Monday morning Julie stood up on her crutches and hobbled off to school. Luke was both saddened and relieved by her absence. The boys stuck to the studio hammering out the rest of the music for Julie’s song. They would stop for a bit to recharge before starting up again. Luke was starting to really like where they were at with the music. He could hear Julie’s voice singing the lyrics from her hospital bed perfectly.

“What is that?” 

The music died and the boys turned to the door to look at Julie. She was balanced on her crutches and staring at the three of them as if they’d suddenly grown extra heads. Luke felt heat in his cheeks.

“Julie, you’re home early,” he managed.

She met his eyes. “No. I’m on time. Now, tell me. What were you guys just playing?”

“The song you wrote for Luke,” Reggie answered, easily.

Julie’s eyes widened. A flush crept up her neck. “The what?”

“Perfect Harmony?” Reggie clarified, unhelpfully. He turned to look at Alex and Luke. “Did she hit her head when she broke her foot? Shouldn’t she remember writing a song?”

“No. I remember writing it. I don’t remember showing it to you guys.”

Alex pointed at Luke. “You told Luke.”

Luke flinched as Julie turned her hard stare on him again. “Were you in my dream box again?”

“No!” He said quickly.

“Didn’t you show it to him in the hospital?” Reggie asked. “He came back humming it.”

Julie’s shoulders sagged. “Hospital?”

Reggie nodded. “Yeah? When you broke your foot.” Reggie pointed at the offending foot. “Do you need to see another doctor? You broke your foot at school last week.” He explained patiently as if explaining it to someone gone senile. Reggie turned to the boys. “Why does she think she’s using crutches?”

“Reggie!” Alex hissed. “Shut up.”

Julie turned and hobbled away without another word. Luke watched her go feeling his stomach twist into knots. He hadn’t meant for her to hear them playing that song, he just couldn’t get it out of his head. 

He set his guitar down and followed Julie into the house. She was just getting to the top of the stairs when he stepped through the back door into the kitchen. He heard her slam her door shut and flinched again. This was going to hurt.

He stood outside her bedroom door and tried to work out the right words. Finally, he raised his hand to knock. There was a pause and Luke thought she was going to turn him away before he could explain himself.

“Who is it?”

Luke took a deep breath. “Can I come in?”

Silence.

“Okay.”

Luke stepped through her door and stood awkwardly on the other side of it. Julie had her dream box open on her bed. A thousand sheets of paper were scattered over her bedspread. She was sifting through them and avoiding his eyes. 

“I was worried about you. Carlos told us you’d been hurt and had surgery and I just had to see you. I didn’t plan it out.”

Julie nodded at the mattress. “How much did I say?”

Luke shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

She looked up at him. A fierceness in her eyes that made him tongue tied. “It matters to me.”

Luke ruffled his hair. “You told me how Nick broke your foot.”

Her angry look settled over her face. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

Luke sighed. “You dream about me.”

She shut her eyes in defeat. “And?”

“We dance?”

“And?”

“You like my hair brushed back?”

Julie winced. “Okay. You can stop.”

Luke shove his hands in his pockets and muttered, “You asked.”

Julie shook herself like an etch-a-sketch. “I was on a lot of medication. Can we just forget I said any of that?”

“What?” 

“Okay, I might have a tiny crush on you, but we don’t need to make a big deal out of it, right? So, can we forget I said any of that and move on?”

Luke’s mouth ran dry. He cleared his throat and nodded, shuffling his feet. “Yeah, absolutely. It’s not like we could ever be together anyway, right?” He forced a chuckle, but it came out wrong.

Julie nodded, her eyes back on the scraps of paper around her. “Exactly.”

Maybe it was wishful thinking, but he thought she sounded just as disappointed as he felt. Maybe Julie was right. Maybe they should just forget it. He poofed away and found himself outside his parents’ house. They were having dinner together. Something he would never get to do with Julie. He could only eat in one place and he would never go back there. 

His dad said something across the table causing a smile to break across his mom’s face. His dad’s eyes filled with so much love at the incredibly simple act. Luke’s chest twisted again. Maybe Reggie and Alex were right. Just because Julie wanted him to forget what she said didn’t mean he ever would. It had been the best thing he’d heard in his afterlife.

He knew then and there that he wasn’t going to just give up on Julie Molina. Whatever his unfinished business had been when he’d died, he knew his purpose in the afterlife was going to be sticking by Julie’s side forever.


End file.
